Duncan is an awkward teen leading an entirely regrettable life. And he has no adult to mentor him out of his sad-sack malaise. The Way, Way Back (which is where you sit in a station wagon when you’re the family runt) is an amazing comedy and moving story about Duncan spending a summer dealing with his parents’ divorce, his mom’s complete dick of a new boyfriend (played against type by Steve Carell) and being a social pariah around girls. (Though I’d argue a group of teenage girls giggling in your vicinity will destroy you at any age.)
But of all the all-star cast, the man who really steals the film is Sam Rockwell, who plays the manager of the beach town’s water park. He’s an overgrown frat boy, yet a sweet, protective big-brother type who immediately senses Duncan needs a friend. Blaspheme alert: I love Bill Murray very much, but Sam Rockwell takes Murray’s Meatballs camp-director character and just shreds it, launching hilarious rapid-fire putdowns at the water park kids, who eat it up, and a female coworker who hates how much she wants him. Sam is scary talented. There’s Oscar buzz for him for this role, and he deserves it.
It’s the funniest movie of the summer, and expanding into more theaters this weekend. See it.
